Pages

Friday, 25 January 2013

Joint Public Statement on Hindutva Terror

Joint Public Statement on Hindutva Terror* *

*24 January 2013 *

While one may or may not agree with the terminology employed by the HomeMinister in his recent speech at Jaipur, we feel that for long prejudicehas ruled investigations, obscuring the role of organizations and theirmultiple affiliates in planning and executing of attacks and bombings inthe country. The veneer of 'nationalism' -- narrow, exclusionary and basedon hatred for minorities as it is-- cannot hide the violence that Sangh andits affiliates beget and peddle.

Civil rights groups have been arguing for long that the investigations intobomb blasts and terror attacks have degenerated into communal witch-hunts.Bomb blasts are followed predictably by mass arrests of Muslim youth, raidsin Muslim-dominated localities, detentions, arrests and torture; mediatrials, charge sheets and prosecution based on custodial confessions andlittle real evidence. It has been assumed, and accepted widely, that nofurther proof of guilt need be offered than the fact that the accusedbelonged to a particular community. Leads which pointed to the hands ofgroups affiliated to Sangh organisations and their complicity in planningand executing acts of terror were ignored, never seriously pursued. Theagencies, showing their abject bias, instead chose to pursue the beatentrack of investigating Islamic terrorist organizations such—despite clearevidence pointing in the opposite direction. This was true of Nanded blastsin 2006, as well as of Mecca Masjid and Ajmer Sharif bombings.

The only exception was Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare, who had, asfar back as 2008 conclusively brought into the public domain the nefariousdesigns of Abhinav Bharat and its foot soldiers of hate: (Sadhvi) PragyaSingh of the ABVP, serving army officer Col. Purohit, and Sunil Joshi,Indresh and Swami Aseemanand belonging to the RSS. Karkare had communicatedto the Hyderabad Police the sensational claim by Col. Purohit that he hadprocured RDX from an army inventory when he was posted in Jammu and Kashmirin 2006. The Hyderabad Police however ignored his messages, having alreadydetained close to 70 youth belonging to the Muslim community.

We demand that:

· Although the Indian government has belatedly acknowledged theheinous terrorist acts of the Sangh groups we feel that a genuine probemust also perforce encompass a thorough enquiry into the terror nexusstraddling Abhinav Bharat, RSS, VHP, BJP and Bajrang Dal leaders togetherwith sections of the Indian intelligence and security agencies whodeliberately subverted the probes as well as the due process of law.

· It must also be investigated whether the network of Hindutvaterrorists have been provided not just political but also financial andlogistical support by various governments

· There must be a thorough investigation into the foreign sourcesof funding of the Hindutva organizations.

We hope that the acknowledgement of Hindutva terror will not remain astatement only but that the investigations will be seriously and sincerelypursued.